Activist, artist cleaning beaches with broad strokes

While getting her message out, Kim Masoner, founder of Save Our Beach, wears purses and holds a bowl; all are made from recycled materials, like those found on the beach. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

More about Cleanup Day

The California Coastal Cleanup Day, begun in 1985 by the Coastal Commission, is considered the state's largest volunteer event. The first year, about 2,500 people joined the effort. Last year, more than 65,000 volunteers picked up about 770,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from California's beaches, lakes and waterways. In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records dubbed the effort as the "largest garbage collection" ever organized, with 50,405 volunteers.

"Coastal Cleanup Day is about much more than picking up trash. It's a chance for Californians to join people around the world in expressing their respect for our oceans and waterways," the Coastal Commission website reads. "It's an opportunity for the community to demonstrate its desire for clean water and healthy marine life. And it's a moment to share with one's neighbors, family, and friends, coming together to accomplish something vital and worthy on behalf of our environment."

In 1986, the Ocean Conservancy started the International Coastal Cleanup. Last year, more than half a million volunteers collected more than 10 million pounds of trash in 97 countries and locations around the world. The top 10 participating countries were: U.S., Philippines, Canada, Hong Kong, Dominican Republic, Mexico, India, Peru, Ecuador, Puerto Rico.

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“See this one, it was made completely out of gum wrappers,” she said as she paws through recycled creations she's come across through the years.

There's the woven basket created with Halloween candy wrappers that a young boy named Phillip Alvy brought her as a present, a regular who insists his mom brings him to the shores of Seal Beach every third Saturday of the month to get his hands dirty. There's the bag Masoner made with her own hands out of the ribbons from old cassette tapes.

“Ooooh, look at this one,” she said, pulling out a purse made from a license plate that was bent into a cylinder shape.

You know the story; one person's trash is another person's treasure.

Masoner is a collector and creator of anything that was once trash and transformed into recycled products, and she has plenty of inspiration at her disposal. About 15 years ago she started Save Our Beach, a group that draws hundreds of people to the sand near First Street every third Saturday of the month to help clean up trash that flows from 52 inland cities down the San Gabriel River. A few years ago, she expanded to Long Beach, and meets near Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier on the first Saturday of each month.

Her Seal Beach cleanup group will meet this Saturday, coinciding with the state's California Cleanup Day and the bigger International Coastal Cleanup Day, an annual celebration that draws hundreds of thousands of people to shores, lakes, rivers and trails to clean up trash before it hits the ocean. About two dozen cleanup groups will meet around Orange County to take part in the efforts.

Masoner started Save Our Beach after attending a community meeting 15 years ago where Paul Yost, a former Seal Beach councilman and surfer, asked how they could make the beaches better. Back then, regular beach cleanups pretty much didn't exist.

The rain poured down the morning of the first cleanup, where they expected 40 people to show. Instead, 420 people – including Gov. Gray Davis – showed up to scour the sand for trash.

“It was amazing,” Masoner said. “Everything was soaked. As soon as we started the cleanup, it cleared up.”

To date, more than 150,000 people from around the nation have showed up for the cleanups. She remembers a group of about 100 kids coming on a bus from Iowa to help out – after going to Disneyland first, of course.

The most shocking cleanup came on a rainy day in January 2010, after massive storms washed trash as far as the eye could see along the sand in Seal Beach. A dozen shopping carts, big tires, and piles and piles of trash made the sand look like a landfill. Among the trash that Masoner – looking heartbroken as she tried to figure out where to start – gathered were 78 tennis balls during her solo cleanup.

She said she had to walk on trash: “You weren't on sand any more.”

But there's good news – these days, the beaches are cleaner, Masoner said. She attributes cleanups and more environmental education to better conditions of the past few years.

“We're more about teaching and talking about what we can all do to make a difference and change, and being more mindful,” she said.

Related Links

While getting her message out, Kim Masoner, founder of Save Our Beach, wears purses and holds a bowl; all are made from recycled materials, like those found on the beach. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
While getting her message out, Kim Masoner, founder of Save Our Beach, goods made from recycled materials. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Kim Masoner, founder of Save Our Beach, is reflected in the bottom of a purse made from a license plate. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Kim Masoner, founder of Save Our Beach, holds a bowl made by a 6-year-old boy out of his Halloween candy wrappers. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Kim Masoner, founder of Save Our Beach, walks on a filthy beach after a big storm in 2010 brought piles of trash to the sand downstream from the San Gabriel River. LAYLAN CONNELLY, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Kim Masoner, founder of Save Our Beach, walks on a filthy beach after a big storm in 2010 brought piles of trash to the sand downstream from the San Gabriel River. PHOTO BY LAYLAN CONNELLY, PHOTO BY LAYLAN CONNELLY

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